New book gives voice to the 'strong women of Southie'

Wednesday

Oct 3, 2018 at 1:22 PMOct 3, 2018 at 10:51 PM

At a time when women are speaking up about painful, personal experiences, the book “Women of Southie” is particularly timely.

Subtitled “Finding Resilience During Whitey Bulger’s Infamous Reign,” the book is the story of six South Boston women whose lives were shaped by varying combinations of abuse as children and adults, drug addiction, and the loss of relatives and friends by murder or suicide. It's also a story of loyalty to others and a love for their community.

Anna Weeks, who co-authored the book with best-selling author Phyllis Karas, is the wife of Kevin Weeks, Whitey Bulger’s chief lieutenant. Karas had come to know Weeks when she wrote the memoir of Kevin Weeks, “Brutal: The Untold Story of My Life Inside Whitey Bulger’s Irish Mob,” which spent time on the New York Times best seller list.

“I had been working with Kevin, but it was Anna’s story that absolutely fascinated me,” said Karas, a former journalism instructor at Boston University who lives north of Boston. “She is such a strong woman, and it takes a lot of courage for her to tell her story. She was the first one, and others have followed.”

In many cases, the women have made poor decisions, acted self-destructively, abused drugs, cycled through relationships with men who were addicts or felons, and became single mothers. But they also had great empathy for others with difficulties, were devoted parents who tried to avoid the mistakes of their own parents, and earned degrees and had occupations and careers. The other women are Karen Weeks Rakes, the sister of Kevin Weeks, Elaine McGuire Donlan and Tori Donlan, the mother and daughter of a five-generation large Irish clan,as well as Nancy Young and Marie Hardy Falcione, who died of lung disease last year.

The women talk about their parents, upbringing, childhood, teen and adult lives in great detail. But they say little about the inner resources or support of others that helped them move beyond so much trauma, and none seemed to have the kind of pivotal or cathartic experience that can cause people to leave an abusive relationship, overcome an addiction or find the strength to make other changes. Yet, in many cases, their Catholicism, loyalty to family and community, and appreciation for life were unfailing supports.

“I often looked for an explanation for their resilience, but I honestly think that some people are more resilient than others,” Karas said.

Anna Weeks clearly is one of them and said she wanted to do the book to give a voice to the “strong women of Southie.”

"I wanted to write my story in hopes of first offering other women hope who suffered the same difficulties as I, and second of all to allow others to hear from other women of Southie, verses the men," she explained in an email. "So many books were written, my husband's included, (that) never a mention the women who were in the background, holding down two jobs, and dealing with all aspects of life."

She has a story that perhaps many abused women will understand. She hated the way she was treated, but she stayed with her partner, Michael, because she felt he loved her and she blamed his addiction and herself for her abuse. For 27 years, during which she was married for 16 and became a teacher, Weeks stayed with Michael, whom she described as “a beautiful man” whose privacy she wants to protect.

“Every one of those 16 years we’d been together might have been hellish, but I wanted someone with me forever,” she wrote in the book. “But how could I ever have thought that person was Michael? He had just finished a lengthy prison sentence, he had a serious drug habit, and he abused me over and over when he was high. But this was the man I wanted. And, somehow, it didn’t seem that my life with Michael was all that unusual. Not in Southie anyhow.”

Weeks felt comfortable with Kevin Weeks because he had tried to protect her from Michael’s rages. When Kevin was arrested and sent to prison, they wrote to each other. While watching television, she saw him in an orange jumpsuit and saw the site where he had buried bodies. She wrote of the sympathy she felt for him, saying “I prayed for Kevin’s forgiveness from God, begging God to stand by him and not let him be alone.” At book signings, she has said that she believes Southie was safer when Whitey Bulger ruled and that she, and many others, trusted him to help with difficulties.

When Kevin Weeks was released from prison after six years in 2005 – after pleading guilty and becoming a cooperating witness – she spent time with him and went back and forth about whether to finally leave Michael. In 2007, she began living with Kevin and married him in 2012, after her divorce became legal.

“I knew, despite his past, that he had forsaken a life of crime, that he was a good man who would always treat me well and would offer me a calm loving life,” Weeks wrote. “I believed the pledge he repeated every morning that this day he would not commit another crime. His drama was in the past. We both believed we deserved better and were determined to give that to one another.”

And it seems they have, now living in South Boston with their two sons and infant daughter, all born since she was age 49.

“I will never forget all the suffering and disappointments of my former life, nor will I ever stop being grateful for the gifts that have been given to Anna Palazzolo Weeks. Who would ever have thought such a miracle could happen?,” she wrote.

At book signing events in South Boston, Hingham and other locations, Karas and Weeks will read excerpts and they, and some of the other women, will talk about their experiences and answer questions.

“People have trusted us to tell their stories, and Anna and I were so nervous about how they would react when they saw their stories in print,” Karas said. “We’ve had some events already and the women have not backed down. No matter what the question is, they answer it. They’re saying ‘I have a story to tell that I’m not anxious to share, but I’m not going to hide. In a town that has been so ruled by men, these women are being heard.”

Karas found meaning in these stories and believes readers will too.

“Just because some bad things have happened in your life, you can plow on and find joy in your life,” Karas said. “I hope people who read the book will feel like, ‘If these women can survive and move on, I can too.'”

Reach Jody Feinberg at jfeinberg@patriotledger.com. Follow her on Twitter@JodyF_Ledger.